Saturday, 16 June 2012

﻿﻿I see I'm not the only one surprised satirist Armando Iannucci accepted an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honour's. The man behind The Thick Of It has taken some stick from Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's spinner-in-chief and the inspration for the comedy show's foulmouthed Malcolm Tucker.Here's some of the Twitter exchange in The Guardian's online story.

Alistair Campbell: @ campbellclaretSo @ AIannucci OBE joins the Establishment he claims to deride. Malcom Tucker and I do not approve of honours system

Armando Iannucci: @ AIannucciIt's probably more Establishment to order your army to march into other countries for no reason. Swings and roundabouts

Alistair Campbell: @ campbellclaretyou see, your wit a bit tired and blunt already. Three little letters can have more impact than you realise. Tut Tut

Armando Iannucci: @ AIannucciWMD

Iannucci argued it would have been bad manners to have refused the award.

But I agree with Andrew Neil who tweeted, The Guardian reports, "Why would somebody who constantly parades their anti-establishment credentials accept such a bauble?" ...adding that he believed journalists should also never accept honours "from people we are supposed to be holding to account".

Grapefruitcrazy

I’m not going into that good night – gentle or any other way – for as long as possible. Hence the launch of this blog in December 2009 a month before my 65th birthday.
Why the blog's name? When my doctor temporarily prescribed statins to reduce my cholesterol levels she told me to exclude grapefruit from my diet. I received the profoundest sense of my own mortality.
I’ve never liked grapefruit but now banned they called to me siren-like from supermarket shelves.
Forbidden grapefruit, it can only be a short step until my body was denied solid food and then oxygen itself.
Originally a cultural blog subtitled last stop before the abyss, after building a large archive, I re-launched in a new guise in March 2012 and again in April 2014.
My interests are widespread; by nature I prefer to look forward rather than back. I’m male; divorced with grownup children; a retired national newspaper journalist; and a Londoner. GC